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Friday, March 30, 2012

Ask Esa: Answer Time!

Answer time!

Hi everyone!

It’s already Friday, so a great time for the third entry of this week. Last
week, I introduced you to my new series: “Ask Esa”. Alongside with that I also
wanted to hear YOUR The Deck Out –stories, if you have benefitted from my
articles. I got a decent amount of questions for the “Ask Esa” –series but I
only got a few The Deck Out –stories. I really hope that you’ll e-mail, Facebook
or Twitter me you’re the Deck Out –stories because I know a lot of people, who
have them!

Anyways, the topic of this entry is “Ask Esa”. Today, I’ll reveal – in my
opinion – the most interesting questions, I received and I’ll answer them, the
best I can. I hope you enjoy this and I hope you will send me a lot of
questions for the future “Ask Esa”’s as well, so I can make this entry series a
regular part of my blog as well. However, let’s get into the questions of the
very first “Ask Esa: Answer Time!”.

Question #1

I'm writing, and asking for advice in a new deck i'm building.
The main idea is to use Vanilluxe's Slippery Slope, along with an EX (more on
that in a bit), to constantly stream my opponent with huge attacks.

Vanilluxe's role is bench-warming/Slippery Slope, and thus, helping against
Catcher or a lack of Switch, and also allowing the active pokémon to get to the
bench and be recharged with Eels, or use Hail Blizzards every turn. It also,
disrupts the opponents plans with switch as he/she must change his/her active
pokémon with a benched one a lot of times.

This is a very preliminar decklist (with more than 60 cards, so i can play with
the numbers/cards)

P.D.- A tech i saw for the Kyurem's approach is the use of Cofagrigus NVI46,
since its Damagriiigus attack heals a benched pokémon, while transfering that
damage to the defending pokémon, in this case Kyurem "The Tank" EX.
(maybe a 1-1 or 2-2 line). I wanna know your opinion about it.

Esa answers:

I think
this questions is great because it’s educational for many players at the same
time. Also, I can talk about my favorite thing of Pokémon TCG- consistency -
when it comes to the answer of this question. As we can also see from the
amount of cards in this deck, there’s a lot of work to do.

First, let’s take a look at this deck’s strategy. In my opinion, the strategy
is solid but there is one problem with the deck. This problem is very common
among new players. The need to create something completely new is very common
among new players. We can see this in this deck list as well. If we look
closely at the deck list, we soon realize that the deck is really an
Eelektrik/Zekrom deck with Vanilluxe put in. Zekrom/Eelektrik has won even States
Championships without Vanilluxe so is there really a need for Vanilluxe in
Zekrom/Eelektrik? The answer is no. If we want to make the deck work, we need
some serious changes. I respect the core Pokémon lines of this deck (excluding
the Vanilluxe) and some personal touches of this deck, so I’ll mostly just
touch the Trainer and Energy lines to show, how we can get the deck tournament
viable. The final list would look like this:

Energies:
4 DCE
8x Lighting Energy
=12=60So, I
removed all the unnecessary cards like Rare Candies and Vanilluxe, so I could
get to 60 cards. The Pokémon lines are now clear – the deck uses both Zekrom EX
and Mewtwo EX as an attacker. Cleffa is a great starter but can be replaced by
Smeargle if wanted.

Also, there were a lot of search and draw cards in the deck, so I decided to
take the normal way with them (Pokegears and Collectors). These cards guarantee
the early game basic search. The other option to basic search is to run Dual
Balls, Level Balls and Pokémon Communications but I’m not a fan of flipping
when it comes to search cards, so I took the supporter way to that. I also
added 3 Junk Arms. If you don’t know why I added the Junk Arm count to 4, I
suggest you took a look into my The Great Junk Arm article, which can be found
here. Junk Arm is your MVP, no matter, which deck you run.

Energy-wise I only maxed out the DCEs because this deck’s attackers need it.
Both Zekrom EX and Mewtwo EX become very lethal thanks to DCE so maxed DCEs is
the way to go with this deck.

Question #2

Hi Esa!

First of
all, sorry for any English errors - That's not my first language, and if you
want my opinion, it shouldn't be my second either! ;)

Second,
thanks for the opportunity to your readers expose their questions to you. I
think it's great for the game and it show us that you really care about the
people who follow your articles.

My name is
Bruno, Fuzzy in everywhere except for my mom, and I'm from Brazil. I recently
finished the college and unfortunately find myself unemployed. My
"job", if it would be ever considered a job, is write Magic the
Gathering related articles in the notice channel (My editor don't like the term
BLOG, but it's the same thing) of one big webstore here in Brazil - No fake
humble here, I'm quite good on it.

They will
open one "physical" store (Hope it make sense) in a couple of weeks,
and they will expand their product line to Pokémon as well. They want/need one
person to write Pokémon-related articles, but I'm feeling insecure about it - I
used to play A LOT the game when it was hyped with the anime
(Basic-Jungle-Fossil era, Blastoise is the BEAST) and only recently came back
(A little early than the release of Emerging Powers, I believe).

I read
EVERYTHING I can find on the web and play the game only in PTCGO, but with so
little experience in this "new" game do you recommend me to write
something for them or I should wait?

Thanks for
your time, Esa, waiting for your opinion!

- Bruno
"Fuzzy" Lopez

Esa answers:

I think
this is a great question because it’s such an unique question. First of all
Bruno, thanks a lot for your question!

I think that you should definitely write about Pokémon TCG even though, you
might be experienced of the current format. First, It will greatly help the
store’s business (there are similar shops in Finland as well so I’m familiar
with the situation). Second, you don’t have to necessarily write about the
difficult or “pro” things of Pokémon TCG. In my experience 90% of people, who
buy Pokémon TCG cards, don’t even know that they can really play with the
cards.

Even though you aren’t a real expert, you are an expert compared to newcomers
and I’m sure you can help them to become even more interested in the Pokémon
TCG. When targeting your articles towards new players, you’ll probably benefit both
– the shop and yourself. I’m sure that writing an articles, will create a spark
among new players and you’ll be growing the game around you and at the same the
store will get more loyal customers. Maybe one day you can start a league in
the shop/ nearby the shop and get even more playmates and customers to the
shop!

I hope that helped and I wish all the best to you and the store!

Question #3

Hi, I wanted a little help with my Reshiphlosion deck for States/Regionals.
Here's the list:

I took the
Decklist you posted, but I've made a couple changes to help it with Zekrom. The
Cyndaquil CL is great for Donking Celebi or Tynamo with a pluspower, and
Terrakion helps against Zekrom (Specifically the EX). Right now, I have had
almost no problems with your CMT decklist (about 5-1 in testing so far), but
even with the 2 Terrakion, it still has a little trouble with your Zekrom list
(2-3). Should I play the Terrakions even when I can't use them immediately? Or
should I be worried about them being knocked out and only play them when I need
them? Another thing I was wondering, is since the Rescue Energy hasn't been too
useful yet, would that be better if it was replaced by a DCE for a better
chance of an early Donk, or a 4th Prism to help Terrakion?

I'll be
testing these things out, but I wanted to see what you think. Also, if there's
anything else that would help, let me know!

Thank you!

Esa answers:

Here we
have a very decent looking ReshiPlosion list. The 4 Ns help tremendously
against CMT, so I’m not surprised at all that this deck list has good results
against it. Also, I don’t think that a 2-3 result against Zekrom/Eelektrik is
bad at all since ReshiPlosion would be a BDIF if it would win both – CMT and
Eelektrik/Zekrom – over 50% of the time! Looking mainly at the Zekrom/Eelektrik
match-up, here are the changes I would make.

2 Terrakions is an overkill in my opinion. Even though they might help against
Zekrom, you only need to OHKO Zekrom EX probably once a game. Also,
Zekrom/Eelektrik functions in a very similar way as ReshiPlosion, except it’s
usually faster.

To gain the advantage in the match-up, you need to gain the edge in the early
game. This happens with the fixes I made to the deck. Tyrogue is a killer card
against Eelektrik variants. With 4 PlusPowers and Tyorgue, you’re guaranteed to
get the T1 prize against Eelektrik, if they open with Tynamo OR if you have a
Catcher in your hand and they don’t have a Tynamo as their opener. The early
pressure Tyrogue gives to your opponent can easily win the game. Also, the 4
PlusPowers help against Celebi variants because Cyndaquil can easily OHKO
Celebi if you have 4 PlusPowers and 3 Junk Arms in your deck. You might be able
to do it with Tyrogue as well. I also took off one N because if you are ahead
of prizes (as you have to be against Zekrom/Eelektrik, N hurts you more than
your opponent. DCE is also an addition that might help to gain the early
advantage. This can be used in two ways – either to retreat Reshiram in T1 to
Tyrogue, or use Outrage to kill opponent’s active Pokémon with the help from
PlusPower.

All in all, the match-up is all about the first few turns and with these fixes,
you can gain the advantage in the early game. I hope this will lead to very successful
results!

Question #4

Hi, first i want to say that i am new to the game, just a few monts. i've been
playing a celebi/mewtwo/tornadus based in your list of the mewtwo EX series. So
far it has been great for me, i love the deck, by the way can you post your
reshiboar list? Thanks. The list now:

This
question came by anonymous to the comments section, not on the e-mail but I’ll
still answer it.

First of all, all my decklists (including ReshiBoar variants) can be found from
The Decklist Out. I’ve also written two articles about ReshiBoar, which you can find here and here.

Second, I think that the list is very decent looking and in fact, I think that
with that kind of list, even winning tournaments can be possible. You already
know that, I’m a fan of techless Celebi variants (you can find the article for
Celebi/Mewtwo here) but if we keep the techs and make the deck even more
techier, I would only modify the deck a bit.

The fixes are pretty similar to ReshiPlosion but it’s no surprise – Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus
MUST be fast in order to win games. There is nothing faster than a Tyrogue. I
wouldn’t put Tyrogue in the deck if it was a straight Mewtwo/Celebi but since
the deck has already been teched out, one Tyrogue won’t hurt the deck at all –
the opposite.

No matter, how you look at it, PlusPowers are very vital for this deck. They
help in getting the early game prizes with every attacker and they also help getting
the Pokémon with a bit more HP OHKOed. 4Ns is also a must in this deck as long
as you run Shaymin EX. The combo between N and Shaymin is lethal to your
opponent in the late game.

I hope, this improves your results!Question #5

Hi, my
current list looks like this!

Pokemon- 14

thundurus- 2

Zapdos- 1

tyrogue- 1

Tynamo
NVI39- 3

Elektrik- 3

Mewtwo EX- 2

Zekrom BLW-
2

Trainers- 32

eviolite- 2

Plus Power-
3

Pokemon
Catcher- 3

super rod- 1

Junk Arm- 4

Dual ball- 1

switch- 1

Level ball-
1

Pokemon
Collector- 4

Sages
training- 2

PONT- 2

Pokegear
3.0- 2

Juniper- 4

N- 2

Energy- 14

9 lightning

4 DCE

Since this
is my first deck I am not too sure on the numbers, especially if i should even
be playing dual ball or Zapdos. What Pokemon lines and trainer lines
would you recommend?

- Kameron

Esa answers:

This deck
already seems very solid as well. To answer to your questions, I will repeat
myself – either you play Dual Balls or Pokémon Collector –not both ones. Also,
Zapdos is good in early aggression but I think Tornadus does the job even
better. I want to show everyone the list of Zekrom/Eelektrik and how it would
look like with Ball engine, so here’s the fixed list with no-Collectors and a
Ball engine.

The list is aggressive in both – Pokémon lines and trainer lines. The only fix,
I wanted to make for the list, is to add 4th PlusPowers but I can’t
find space for it in this list. I would suggest to Kameron to try to find the
place for 4th PlusPower. It will be very nice to OHKO things like
Mewtwo EX with Zekrom EX and 2 PlusPowers. One thing that may be done is to
take away the Eviolite to make the deck “über” aggressive.

I hope that helped Kameron!

Question #6

I just came back from Milano Regional (in Italia) with 71 masters and top16,
and finished 4rd with a Donphan/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus deck after losing to… CMT. Then
I saw you missed tops with CMT, and your top4 was so golden for Donphan. Yet it
makes me think CMT should have a weakness as big as fighting is for Zeel,
something bigger than just being N'd (resource management could bypass this so
I don't consider it a big weakness). What do you think about it ?

Esa answers:

I think
this is a question that bothers many of us – does CMT have any other weak
points than late game N to 1 to 2 cards? In fact, for one’s part, I’ve already
touched the other weakness of CMT in my answers.

CMT may have problems in the late game but it will also have problems in early
game whenever your opponent starts the game and gets a fast start. Yes, the
early game can be very problematic for CMT against some match-ups. A good
example of this is the ReshiPlosion match-up. If CMT starts with a Celebi
active and Tornadus on the bench and Reshi is able to OHKO Celebi in T1, the
set-up of CMT will be slowed dramatically. The disrupting of energy acceleration
is a huge advantage in early game against CMT. This can be – in my opinion –
counted as the second weakness of CMT.
Question #7

Hey Esa! thanks for all that you do, man! Really
appreciate it. hey, I saw someone saying that since Dark Explorers has come out
with Rayquaza EX (I think...) that Mewtwo Ex has had very little play in Japan.
Are you seeing that? Can you confirm that?

thanks!
- Ken in Ohio

Esa answers:

I want to
only confirm that the Mewtwo EX won’t be a 60$ card after the next two sets. It’ll
still be played but it isn’t s staple for every deck as it’s at the moment.
Sorry that I couldn’t be more help but I don’t want to get into hyping cards! I’ve
done it once and we all know how it ended up being!

Conclusion

All in all, I think all the question, I received I got
were great and it was great fun answering them! I hope that everyone found
these questions and answers thoughtful and learnt a little about them. I also
hope that the answers really helped the people, who asked these questions (I
sure hope, you’re reading this!).

I’ll be happy to get even more questions in the future so I hope that everyone
send their questions to me by e-mail, Facebook, Twitter on in the comments so I
can make these entries a regular part of my blog! Don’t hesitate to ask
anything TCG related!

Thanks for reading and please leave feedback and questions to guarantee the
future entries!